Native and state officers in New York are expressing outrage after dozens of federal brokers carried out a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raid in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses accounts and video footage captured the chaotic scenes in Decrease Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, the place masked and armed federal brokers had been seen detaining a number of people close to Canal Road, whereas crowds of New Yorkers gathered, protesting towards the motion. Army-style automobiles had been additionally seen driving by the realm.
The Division of Homeland Safety described the operation as a “focused, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Road in New York Metropolis, centered on legal exercise referring to promoting counterfeit items”.
The raid drew swift condemnation from native and state leaders.
The New York police division (NYPD) shortly distanced itself from the operation, stating that the division had “no involvement within the federal operation that passed off on Canal Road this afternoon”.
Eric Adams, the mayor, reposted the NYPD’s assertion and added: “New York Metropolis doesn’t cooperate with federal regulation enforcement on civil deportations, in accordance with our native legal guidelines.”
A protester is arrested as regulation enforcement conduct a raid on road distributors within the Chinatown neighborhood of New York on Tuesday. {Photograph}: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, condemned the operation and hit out at Donald Trump.
Trump, she stated, “claims he’s concentrating on the ‘worst of the worst’” however “right this moment his brokers used batons and pepper spray on road distributors and bystanders on Canal Road”.
“You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers,” she stated.
Chuck Schumer, a New York senator, referred to as the raid “indiscriminate, improper, and harmful” and stated that federal immigration businesses “ought to goal criminals for arrest and deportation – not unleash reckless raids towards distributors on the streets of the town”.
“This creates worry and chaos and doesn’t make us safer,” he added.
Jumaane Williams, the town’s public advocate, stated that federal brokers disadvantaged “distributors of due course of and ripping them from their households – all as a result of they tried to earn a dwelling”. Town comptroller, Brad Lander, stated that “road distributors should not a nationwide safety menace” and thanked the “New Yorkers who mobilized shortly”.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, described the raid on Tuesday as a “horrifying show of federal overreach and authoritarian techniques”, including that “our communities deserve security, dignity and due course of – not worry and violence that tear households aside”.
He additionally instructed reporters that just a few individuals had been taken into custody for protesting and blocking Ice’s efforts.
A DHS spokesperson instructed CBS Information that folks within the crowd “had been shouting obscenities, grew to become violent and obstructed regulation enforcement duties” and stated that a minimum of one protester was arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal officer.
The three candidates for New York Metropolis mayor additionally reacted to the raid.
A federal agent pulls out his taser as individuals protest a raid on road distributors in Manhattan’s Chinatown on 21 October 2025. {Photograph}: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
The Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani, condemned the operation as a “aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant road distributors”, including: “As soon as once more, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create worry, not security. It should cease.”
Andrew Cuomo, the impartial candidate and former New York governor, referred to as the raid an “abuse of federal energy by the Trump administration: extra about worry than justice, extra about politics than security.
“This isn’t who we’re, and it’ll by no means be NYC when I’m mayor,” Cuomo stated. “The Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor, not as a ornament, however as a declaration of our values and the promise of America.”
And in a press release to the Gothamist, a spokesperson for the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, stated that the federal authorities ought to prioritize the deportation of “gang members, intercourse traffickers, and people concerned in main crimes.
“[Sliwa] has additionally been clear that the backs of eating places and different service industries shouldn’t be the main focus of immigration enforcement, and that sources ought to goal harmful offenders, not working individuals,” the spokesperson added.
